Panasonic KX-T61610 issues

[Mark S]

I had my first unit which was a train wreck.  It had no door and not every modular extension port was working but all I wanted to do was use it as an intercom for four of my refurbished rotary phones.  It worked great for a few days then one day I had no dial tone.  I attempted a reset but no luck.  I powered on and off several times but got nothing.  My wife hated that it was old and yellow so I got a decent bid excepted on another.  All extension ports worked on this one, it had a door and it was white!  After several days, today I had no dial tone.  Same recovery procedures and no luck.  It's hanging on a wall, it's plugged into a surge protector and we have had no power outages.  My volts coming into the house read at 124V. I have no landline so it's strictly for intercom purposes.  I have not put a back up battery in it and I have no earth ground on the side of the unit.  My receptacle, however, is properly grounded and has been tested.  I'm not sure what's going on or if my luck just sucks.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Pourme]

~

Could just be the luck of the draw. I have a 308 and a 616 hooked together for about three years, no issues. (a occasional "ghost ring.?) These units are old with a lot of hours of service before we get them. I hope you didn't pay too much. They, when working properly, really make a "static" collection, come to life. My grand kids get a kick out of mine!

[RB]

It is hard to believe 2 fail the same.
Unplug power,
Chk the power connector to the  board, if it has one???
then, remove all the phones, and let it sit for a day, and power it up.
plug in only one phone to any port and test.
you may have a bad phone, pullin it down??? just a guess

[Doug Rose]

I use my 616 in default with no programming. It's been mine for over 20 years.

Question, are all your cables home runs from location to Panasonic? You only need 1 pair,  Green and red on old JK, or white blue blue white on CAT 3 and above. You second pair could have something on it, Light for door bell etc and it is shorting it. If the phones work and then don't something is shorting it with time, not immediately. Cable could have a Nick in insulation.

Plug the phones directly into the Panasonic and leave them there Take the cables out of the problem.

I just have a power strip that my 616 is plugged into. On my workbench, cover is off. It is yellowed. I use it as my tester and have another phone connected on my workbench.

I agree with RB, it's either a phone or cable shorting it out. I would power off, strap the battery in and power up.  Use a known good phone for a couple of days add another. Etc

Why not bring DT into it so the phones work. It is also another test, can you dial 9 1 and get DT.

Can you dial another ext even without intercom dial tone?

[Mark S]

Thanks!  Doug from reading your past posts I know how dependable yours has been.  All of my lines are home runs with regular 4 conductor phone cable.  Two lines were original from an old landline and two are new that I just ran.  Its currently shut off.  I'll try the two that are not wallmounted first and hope that I get lucky.  When it stopped working there was no dial tone and dialing an extension did not work.  I'm hoping if it is shorted that no damage was done to the board, however.
Thanks,
Mark

[Doug Rose]

Mark...Power the 616 up and plug one into the 616 directly into the modular port. Try them all directly first and then try on one cable at a time. Leave them for the four days it usually goes bad.

Disconnect the second pair from the jacks. You will get this. Either a bad cable, phone or line cord into the phone.

Make sure the fuse in the 616 is not blown if you get no joy.

Hopefully your original 616 will sell to a Forum member....Doug

[Mark S]

Thanks to all.  Whenever my back's to the wall I turn to you folks.  The unit powers on with indicator lights lit but no function.  I'll let it sit unplugged then trouble shoot with my Fatboy and 302 first.  That's how I checked it out of the box.  If all else fails I'll open it up and hope to find a blown fuse possibly.  I will check back.

[Mark S]

Update.  More confused  At first I traced my hard wired lines with a multimeter checking each lead for connectivity in every possible combination with handsets on and off and got no connectivity.  I checked the fuses in the KX-T61610 out of their cradles and all tested good for connectivity.  I then removed the small circuit board with the bridge rectifiers on it.  First off I am not a circuitboard guy and just looked all over the entire system for swelled caps or burnt resistors and saw nothing.  After removing the board, I looked at the solder side with a 50X magnifier for cracks, splits or bad solder joints...nothing.  All the bridge rectifiers tested the same.  I then replaced and re plugged the board.  By this time, 10 days had passed.  When I plugged it in and hit the power switch, it lit, then the day and night lights came on, then they went out, then I heard a click from the board and the "day" indicator light came on.  I plugged my Fatboy and 302 mobile phones in and they work!  But why?
I did nothing to brag about here.  My other (first unit) will light up with a power indicator but no internal "click" and no "day" light indicator comes on. 
Could my problem be the internal mechanism that turns on the "day " light that stopped working after sever days of being on before?

[TelePlay]

Does your 616 have a the place in the lower left corner to put in a rechargeable battery on a pigtail or does it have a battery soldered right into one of the boards?

[Doug Rose]

Update.  More confused  At first I traced my hard wired lines with a multimeter checking each lead for connectivity in every possible combination with handsets on and off and got no connectivity.  I checked the fuses in the KX-T61610 out of their cradles and all tested good for connectivity.  I then removed the small circuit board with the bridge rectifiers on it.  First off I am not a circuitboard guy and just looked all over the entire system for swelled caps or burnt resistors and saw nothing.  After removing the board, I looked at the solder side with a 50X magnifier for cracks, splits or bad solder joints...nothing.  All the bridge rectifiers tested the same.  I then replaced and re plugged the board.  By this time, 10 days had passed.  When I plugged it in and hit the power switch, it lit, then the day and night lights came on, then they went out, then I heard a click from the board and the "day" indicator light came on.  I plugged my Fatboy and 302 mobile phones in and they work!  But why?
I did nothing to brag about here.  My other (first unit) will light up with a power indicator but no internal "click" and no "day" light indicator comes on. 
Could my problem be the internal mechanism that turns on the "day " light that stopped working after sever days of being on before?

Mark...did you plug directly into the modular ports of the 616? Eliminate the cables and plug one phone directly into the 616. Wait a day and plug another directly into the 616 until all phones are working, eliminating the cables. I feel you have one or more cables that are shorting out BOTH of your systems....Doug

[Mark S]

John,
I have a pigtail.  When I first used the unit, it had a battery installed.  When I removed the door and pulled the board, I unplugged the battery pack.  I thought they were used for any special programming that was done.  But I have a fresh backup battery unused.

Doug,
Currently I have both the SC Fatboy and 302 plugged in, but I will do it one at a time and check for dial tone.  I have another SC speakeasy and a jukebox phone that are wall mounted. These currently are not plugged into the Panasonic.    To be honest, I was so happy to hear the dial tone back, I didn't want to jinx myself and loose it again.  If there is any other way to test for a wire short other than a continuity check, I may not have done that part of it as well as I should.

[Doug Rose]

Mark....make sure you only have two wires connected to each jack.  You do NOT need the second pair. I think that is where your issue is ...Doug

[Mark S]

I believe I have a circuit board issue.  Yesterday, I plugged in one phone that I had checked for shorts and found it in good shape.  After two hours the "day" indicator light went out and there was no dial tone. After about two hours unplugged, the Panasonic was working again.   Today with no phones plugged in, after a half hour the "day" indicator went out and when I plugged in a phone it was a dead line.  It appears after it warms up a board component fails.  When it works, the "day" indicator light comes on with an audible "click".  Possibly a relay?  If anyone out there has had a similar issue I'd like to hear what the next step was.
Thanks,
Mark

[twocvbloke]

Sounds to me like a bad capacitor in the power supply circuit, once it warms up, it loses capacitance and anything downstream of it loses power and/or crashes due to too much ripple or under-voltage...